


A Model and a Mystery

by tonystarkssnipples



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Diners, M/M, Pre-Stony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 20:32:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3182171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonystarkssnipples/pseuds/tonystarkssnipples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You know what fucking pisses me off?” the man asked, turning to Steve.<br/>“Um… diners?” Steve asked, trying to lighten the mood.<br/>“People.”<br/>Steve squinted his eyes. “Yeah. People suck, I guess.”<br/>“Do you suck?” the man asked. There was a hopeful look in his eyes that Steve couldn’t let down.<br/>“Um… I try not to. But who knows, really?” Steve asked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Model and a Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a year ago. I was going to add more but it's been sitting in my WIP folder for, well, a year, so I figured I might as well post it since I'm never going to touch it again.

Steve was wiping down the counter when the bell above the door rang and a man walked in. He was hunched over and the frown was evident on his face. Steve looked at the clock. 1:37 am. Whatever was plaguing the man had to be bad if he was coming into this particular middle-of-nowhere diner at 1:37 in the morning.

“Can I help you, sir?” he asked, wiping his hands on the rag before discarding it behind the counter. The man didn’t answer. Instead, he walked to the far end and sat down without grabbing a menu. He stared out the window and Steve saw his reflection. The closer he looked at the man, the less he looked angry and the more he looked sad. “Sir?” Steve asked, cautiously walking toward the him.

“You know what fucking pisses me off?” the man asked, turning to Steve.

“Um… diners?” Steve asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“People.”

Steve squinted his eyes. “Yeah. People suck, I guess.”

“Do you suck?” the man asked. There was a hopeful look in his eyes that Steve couldn’t let down.

“Um… I try not to. But who knows, really?” Steve asked.

“I know I suck. Long since come to terms with the fact that I’m an irredeemable asshole who doesn’t deserve good things. Tonight is just proof of that.”

“Can I get you anything?” Steve asked, attempting to lighten the mood and get back into familiar diner territory.

“Coffee.” Steve grabbed the pot and a mug. “Do I get a name, oh wonderful bearer of coffee?”

“Steve,” he said, sliding the mug to the man. “You?”

“Tony.”

“Hi, Tony.”

“Hi, Steve,” Tony took a long sip of the coffee and made a face. “No offense, Steve, but this coffee is _horrible_.”

“Is it? I’m sorry,” Steve said, grabbing the mug from Tony. He dumped it down the sink, as well as the rest of the pot. “The new guy made it. Peter, I think is his name? I’ll make you more.”

“So where is this Peter?” Tony asked, looking around.

“His shift got off about three hours ago.” Steve looked embarrassed as he put the coffee grounds into the machine. 

“And I was drinking the coffee he made?” Tony made a face.

“Well, not too many people come in here on a Thursday this late and order coffee of all things.” Steve hit the button to start the machine. “You know that caffeine keeps you up, right?”

Tony shrugged. “Whatever.”

“So what brings you to the wonderful STARLIGHT diner in the middle of the night?”

“I was in the area,” Tony said, off handedly. “What brings a strapping young gent like yourself to be working at the wonderful STARLIGHT diner in the middle of the night?”

Steve scrunched up his nose. “Student loans.”

“You didn’t get in on some sort of football scholarship or something?” Tony asked, eyeing Steve up and down.

“I went to art school. We didn’t have sports teams.”

“You any good?” Tony asked.

Steve blushed and shrugged. “I guess. I mean… I graduated.”

“So what’s your medium?” Tony asked.

“I draw,” Steve answered. His art rarely came up in the diner, even with his coworkers, and Steve couldn’t help but get over excited. Even though he wasn’t making any money off of it, he had always been proud of what he could create. “With just about everything.”

Tony, apparently, picked up on Steve’s excitement because he said: “Prove yourself. Sketch me.”

“What?”

“C’mon. You know you want to. I dated an artist once. She said I have a strong jaw.”

Steve chuckled and grabbed a paper menu and a pen. “You do have that. Has anyone ever told you also have an amazing lack of boundaries?”

“I’ve heard it once or twice. How do you want me?” Tony asked.

“Just like that,” Steve said. Tony was leaned forward on the counter, one hand raised as his elbow rested on the counter. “Keep talking, just don’t move,” Steve said, starting on the drawing.

“What do you want me to talk about?” Tony asked.

“What _really_ brought you here tonight?” Steve asked, not looking up from his drawing.

“Ah, you’re perceptive. I like that.”

“Answer the question,” Steve said, chuckling.

“Well I don’t think that’s fair. You get a model and my mystery. What do I get from you.”

“A drawing,” Steve said, glancing back up at Tony.

“Fair enough,” Tony said.

“Stop moving.”

“Okay, okay. Now, to answer your question, my girlfriend is cheating on me with my chauffeur.”

Steve looked up awkwardly and chewed the inside of his cheek. He wanted to ask who the man was if he had a _chauffeur_ , but elected to cut straight to the obligatory, “Sorry.” Then, after a pause. “How’d you find out?”

“I found his wallet in my couch and when I opening it the first picture was of them kissing.” The smile on Tony’s face had disappeared, but he kept his arms in the same position for Steve to continue the sketch. “I should have seen it coming, honestly. I knew he was in love with her, I just never thought she’d go for him. So, I saw the picture before she got home from work and bolted. Needed to clear my head before I made any stupid decisions.”

“Are you going talk about it with her?” Because Steve could talk, seeing as he had had one and a half serious relationships. That both ended. Horribly.

“What’s there to talk about?” Tony asked. The coffee maker pinged and Steve dropped the pen to pour Tony a cup and bring it back to him. Tony took a gulp of the coffee black, ignoring the way it burned his tongue. “Much better. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Okay, my turn.” 

“Your turn for what?” Steve asked, grabbing the pen and resuming drawing.

“I get to ask you an über personal and awkward question.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Steve said.

“Don’t care. Okay, let’s see. Devastatingly good looking, struggling artist, dangerously perceptive… you gay?”

Steve furrowed his brow and once again looked up from the picture. “I think that’s a bit of a jump to make.” Tony just raised his eyebrows, clearly anticipating Steve’s answer. “But…” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “You aren’t wrong.”

“I rarely am,” Tony said, taking another long sip of the coffee. “And just FYI, I wasn’t making the connection between those character traits and the question, I just wanted to point out the good things I’ve already noticed about you.” Steve cocked an eyebrow. “And goddamn I forgot sensational coffee maker.”

“Well, thanks.” Steve said, his face turning slightly pinker. He caught Tony trying to glance at the drawing. “Nope. You don’t get to see it until it’s done.”

Tony groaned and leaned back into his chair, slamming against the back rest. Then, remembering he had a pose to maintain, sat forward and regained his position. They sat in silence for a bit, the only sound, Steve’s pen scratching at the napkin. “Can I ask you another question?”

“You just did.” Steve looked up from behind his eyelashes and goddamn they were long. “But sure, you can ask another.”

“How’d you… more like when did you…”

“Know I was gay? Well, a sparkly unicorn came to my window when I was eleven. I had been under the covers, looking at a dirty magazine and caressing the pictures of women’s boobs. Then I heard the knock on the window and sprang to open it and the sparkly unicorn handed me a purple envelope. When I opened it, it said YOU’RE GAY so I fed the unicorn the dirty magazine and then it gave me The Big Book of Dick. The rest is history.” Steve looked up to see a clearly amused Tony. “To be honest, I always kind of knew, you know?”

“Did you try and hide it?”

“When I came out to my parents, they sent me to Gay Away camp. After a summer there, I was deemed cured and sent home. Since then, yeah, I’ve been hiding it.”

Tony squinted his eyes. “But you told me.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

Steve thought for a long moment, filling the silence with the sound of his pen against the napkin. “There’s something about this place. Late at night… it’s like I’m in another world. A place that doesn’t suck.”

“But you don’t suck. You told me so yourself.”

“I said I try not to.”

“Do you, you know, suck?” Tony asked, using the international sign for blow job.

“Don’t be crass.”

“C’mon. Spit or swallow? I swallow but that’s a personal preference. Mostly because it’s neater and I’m too lazy to clean bodily fluids up if it can be avoided.”

Steve chuckled. “I thought you said you had a girlfriend.”

“You know a person can be attracted to more than one, right? Now stop ignoring the question. Spit or swallow.”

“Swallow. Same reason.”

“A man after my own heart.”

Steve cleared his throat. This guy really didn’t have any boundaries. “Here,” he said, sliding the drawing across the counter to Tony.

Tony turned it around in his hands, examining it from all angles. “This… is this what I look like to you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I look good.”

Steve thought _fuck it_ , and threw caution to the wind. “Well, you’re beautiful.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “I am?”

Steve smiled. “Yeah. You are.”


End file.
